The worst mistakes amateur cooks make, according to a restaurateur

YOU may fancy yourself a pretty good cook because you know how to use herbs and spices.

Wrong.

It's more likely that you are committing one of the most common mistakes made by amateur cooks.

In a Quora thread restaurateur Johnathan Law outlined the worst cooking practices he comes across.

For Mr Law, who owns The Year of the Ram Cafe and Diner in Shenzhen, China, over-seasoning tops the list.

Over-seasoning

"A lot of amateurs do this. Hell, I used to do this. When I got my first full spice rack (and man, that thing had everything from mace to grains of paradise), I put like a dozen different spices on everything. All it did was confuse my palate. Only later did I realise that good technique and ingredients contribute a hell of a lot more flavour than spices. A good dish should have at most 3-4 different primary flavours, coupled with some aromatics."

Turn the heat up. Way up.Source:ThinkStock

Under-heating the pan

"If you're searing or stir-frying, the pan should be super f***ing hot. For a regular cast iron wok, it'll take five-seven minutes for the whole thing to heat up properly. I have fired an employee before for consistently failing to do this."

Stirring the food with a spatula or spoon during a saute

"Lots of people seem to think of sauteing as simply cooking something on high heat. It's not. The idea is to make sure the foods being sauteed never steam in the pot, and that means constantly 'jumping' the food, not stirring it with a spatula."

Not using an oven thermometer

"This is mostly for home cooks. Whenever someone asks me why their baked goods are not turning out the way they should, I ask them if they have an oven thermometer. Ninety per cent of the time, they say no. Comon [sic] people! It'll only run you like 10 bucks."

Adding too much extra liquid to a braise

"I've seen some people add enough water or wine to a braise that the meat is nearly completely submerged. NO! Don't do that! There's a difference between boiling and braising!"

All flours are not created equal.Source:ThinkStock

Substituting baking ingredients based on taste rather than chemical composition

"Never substitute anything in baking unless you're completely familiar with not only the taste, but the exact chemical properties of said substitution. It's great to experiment, but at least do it in an educated way."

Adding too much starch to thicken sauces

"A lot of people do this as well, I guess because of impatience? For a thick pouring sauce, you need at most 2-3 tablespoons starch per cup of liquid, and that's if your liquid doesn't already contain proteins or some sort of emulsifying substance. It takes time for starch to work its magic. If you add too much starch, conversely, you will end up with a bland, grainy, nasty sauce."